Eugenic practices in Spain leading to “extinction” of Down’s syndrome children

Madrid, Spain, Mar 27, 2008 / 04:11 pm (CNA).- The director of Fundacion Vida in Spain, Manuel Cruz, said cases of “Down’s Syndrome have been reduced by half due to prenatal diagnosis and selective abortions.”

In recent statements, Cruz said, “Many of these children who would make their families happy have been forgotten and left among the 1.1 million fetuses killed in Spain since 1985 when abortion was partially legalized.”

After noting that “in merely fifteen years we have gone from 1 in 600 babies with Down’s Syndrome to 1 in 1000,” Cruz stressed that in Spain women are having children at an older age, while the rate of Down ’s syndrome, rather than increasing, is diminishing.” He called this “a silent and dramatic paradox” that leads to the conclusion that “children with Down’s Syndrome are in danger of extinction.”

Cruz noted that in countries where abortion is legal, prenatal testing has led to a three percent increase in the risk of abortion and a decrease in the number of children born with Down’s syndrome.

“There is no question that having a child with special needs can be difficult, but it also brings a series of satisfactions sometimes unimaginable.” He pointed to the example of Maria Victoria Troncoso and her husband Jesús, who 31 years ago adopted their daughter Maite, who suffers from Down’s. In their book they write about how Maite, “with her abilities and values show us she is happy and that she knows how to make others happy.”

She shows affection and kindness in different ways to many people, they said. “She is sensitive and helpful. She thinks of others and that makes her feel good,” her parents wrote in the book.

“Lives like those of Maite and Maria Victoria show that abortion solves nothing, while life enriches,” Cruz said.